After launching her first kids’s guide simply earlier than final Christmas in Brooklyn, Grenadian educator Dr. Ansha Clement is heading on a mission to The Gambia, West Africa.
Dr. Clement – a educated principal, a grasp trainer at Math for America, a chemistry trainer and writer of “Child’s First Science: ABC” – instructed Caribbean Life on Saturday that she can be amongst main educators from the US and the UK on a nine-day mission, from Feb. 10-18, which seeks, amongst different issues, to “lay the muse for a extra educated and expert workforce” in The Gambia.
The Baldwin, Nassau County, Lengthy Island resident stated, amongst educators touring to The Gambia are William “Billy” Inexperienced, the 2023 New York State Trainer of the Yr and a grasp chemistry trainer at A. Philip Randolph Campus Excessive Faculty in New York Metropolis; and Alhassan Susso, the 2019 New York State Trainer of the Yr, who based the Namie Basis, a tribute to his beloved grandmother, devoted to advocating for educators and international schooling initiatives.
Susso, who was born in The Gambia and migrated to the US at 16, presently teaches authorities, economics and private improvement on the Worldwide Group Excessive Faculty within the South Bronx.
He’s additionally the writer of a motivational memoir, “The Mild of Darkness: The Story of the Griots’ Son,” which traces his journey to America as a virtually blind teenager, and his trials and triumphs in turning into American, whereas sustaining his deep African roots.
Consistent with this mission, Dr. Clement stated the Namie Basis, in collaboration with the Gambia Lecturers Union and the Ministry of Schooling in The Gambia, will search to determine the inaugural “Gambia Trainer Prize.”
“This accolade goals to honor distinctive fundamental and secondary faculty academics who’ve considerably impacted their college students and the sphere of schooling,” she stated, including that “The Gambia Trainer Prize is greater than only a commendation; it represents a strategic funding in schooling.
“The purpose is to put the muse for a extra educated and expert workforce, contributing considerably to the socio-economic improvement of The Gambia,” Dr. Clement continued. “This award is carefully aligned with the initiative to result in optimistic change within the Gambian schooling system by addressing core challenges, significantly specializing in enhancing the standard of academics and trainer coaching.”
By shedding gentle on the every day challenges confronted by academics, fostering important conversations and empowering them, she stated the prize helps the overarching purpose of making certain high quality outcomes in schooling.
Moreover, Dr. Clement stated it serves as “a robust instrument to draw top-tier expertise to the educating career, acknowledging and celebrating the pivotal function that academics play in shaping the nation’s future.”
She stated the Schooling Summit and the Trainer Prize intention to deal with alarming statistics, resembling 91 p.c of 7-14-year-olds missing fundamental numeracy expertise, 89 p.c lack fundamental studying expertise, and 29 p.c of Gambian kids are out of faculty.
In the course of the mission, Dr. Clement stated US and UK educators will, amongst different issues, go to a number of faculties; convene with their Gambian trainer colleagues and schooling officers to share observations and insights; conduct skilled coaching for Gambian academics; maintain an awards ceremony on the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Convention Heart; and tour the wealthy historical past of The Gambia, and be taught in regards to the tradition, “enabling them to higher help their immigrant college students, particularly these from West Africa.”
Dr. Clement stated the delegation may also go to the “dwelling” of Kunta Kinte, a fictional character within the 1976 novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Household” by American writer Alex Haley.
“Kunta Kinte was based mostly on one in all Haley’s ancestors, a Gambian man who was born round 1750, enslaved, and brought to America the place he died round 1822,” stated Wikipedia, the net encyclopedia. “Haley stated that his account of Kunta’s life in Roots is a mix of truth and fiction.”
Dr. Clement stated “Child’s First Science: ABC” can be out there on the Timbuktu Bookstore, the biggest bookstore in The Gambia, and at The Nationwide Library.
In getting the chance to journey to The Gambia, she stated she would be capable to “observe and expertise new academic settings, construct relationships with nice educators from world wide, and create an area for me to be curious, reflective and explorative of the affect and variations that I could make globally, particularly within the Caribbean.
“It would assist me develop an understanding of targets for academic methods, and one of the best methods for enlargement and progress inside methods but additionally inside stakeholders of these academic methods,” stated Clement, who earned her Physician of Schooling (Ed. D) in organizational management, with emphasis on organizational improvement, from Grand Canyon College.
As well as, she stated the journey would assist her to “exhibit integrity, develop specificity behind visions and be compassionate to encourage all stakeholders.
“It’s my first step to creating systemic change globally, socially and culturally,” stated Dr. Clement, stating that, with a purpose to be a transformational chief, one must be “self-aware, genuine, in a position to collaborate (and) construct networks to affect optimistic change.”
